Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a prominent Chinese politician. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng became a reformer who led China towards market economics. While Deng never held office as the head of state or the head of government, he nonetheless served as the Paramount leader of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to the early 1990s.

Inheriting a China wrought with social and institutional woes left over from the devastating Cultural Revolution and other mass political movements of the Mao era, Deng was the core of the second generation Chinese leadership. He was instrumental in introducing a new brand of socialist thinking, having developed Socialism with Chinese characteristics and Chinese economic reform, also known as the socialist market economy and partially opened China to the global market.

He is generally credited with advancing China into becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the world and vastly raising the standard of living. For this achievement he is sometimes known as "The Venerated Deng". Analysts generally see Deng Xiaoping's ousting of Hua Guofeng as the moment when the market policies of economic reform began their adoption, leading to revision of previous policies.